News, pop culture and frosty chocolate shakes

February 21, 2004

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has directed the state's attorney general to take immediate steps to stop the gay marriages being performed in San Francisco. Schwarzenegger says the city's actions "present an imminent risk to civil order." Sure, as you can tell by the sickening, omnipresent news footage of newly-married gay couples rampaging through the Civic Center, drunk on love and a fabulously flinty Veuve Clicquot, smashing store windows and overturning cars and killing with impunity. Not to be a big ol' wet blanket or anything, but a spokesperson for Attorney General Tom Lockyer points out a teensy niggling little detail: In California, the AG is independently elected and the governor has no statutory authority over him. "The governor cannot direct the attorney general," said spokeswoman Hallye Jordan. "He can direct the Highway Patrol. He can direct 'Terminator 4.' But he can't tell the attorney general what to do."